Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Gal Ofir

Alex McClelland @alexjmcclelland.bsky.social · 2d

1/13 Thankfully, both you and your plants have a lot of sophisticated ways to fight off invading pathogens.
In our new preprint, we describe a new way in which animals and plants share a common strategy to ward off harmful bacteria.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A secreted citrus protease cleaves an outer membrane protein of the Huanglongbing pathogen

Plants secrete a variety of proteases as a defense response during infection by microbial pathogens. However, the relationship between their catalytic activities and antimicrobial functions remains la...

www.biorxiv.org

3 21 31

Reposted by Gal Ofir

Journal of Experimental Botany @jxbotany.bsky.social · 3h

🍅🌱 SPECIAL ISSUE RESEARCH 🌱🍅

Resistance against bacterial wilt in tomato is linked to variety-specific proteomic changes; the CAPE1 peptide restricts Ralstonia solancearum growth in planta - Zhang et al. 🦠🍅

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...

#PlantScience 🧪 @bactodeath.bsky.social

Fig. 3.PR1 protein features and alignment. (A) Representation of the tomato PR1 protein domains and conserved features. SP, signal peptide; CAP, cysteine-rich secretory proteins, antigen 5, and pathogenesis-related 1 protein domain, highlighting CAP3, CAP4, CAP1, CAP2, and CBM motifs; CAPE, CAP-derived peptide (Han et al., 2023). (B) Alignment of the representative PR1 proteins across different plant species. Amino acid alignment generated from ClustalO alignment of the representative PR1 proteins from tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), potato (Solanum tuberosum), pepper (Capsicum anuum), tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum), Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), and wheat (Triticum aestivum). Red and blue highlighted regions show the last amino acid before the putative CAPE peptide cleavage. The conserved CAPE peptide sequence is shown in red.

4 13

Reposted by Gal Ofir

Jacquet-chris @jacquet-chris.bsky.social · 2d

Want to see ferns under attack and how they respond to pathogens? Check out our latest paper!
doi.org/10.1186/s129...
Congrats on this huge team effort to @baptistebio.bsky.social @madeleinebaker.bsky.social @kellerjeanphd.bsky.social @maximebonhomme.bsky.social @pierremarcdelaux.bsky.social

Various ferns species inoculated with S. sclerotiorum.

19 28

Reposted by Gal Ofir

Tung Le @tunglejic.bsky.social · 1d

new preprint from our group & Antoine Hocher: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A fantastic collaboration with Antoine, with Jovana Kaljevic' initiated the collaboration and drives the project.

Versatile NTP recognition and domain fusions expand the functional repertoire of the ParB-CTPase fold beyond chromosome segregation

Nucleotide triphosphate (NTP)-dependent molecular switches regulate essential cellular processes by cycling between active and inactive states through nucleotide binding and hydrolysis. These mechanis...

www.biorxiv.org

2 31 57

Reposted by Gal Ofir

Silvia Pineda-Munoz, PhD - Climate Ages @climateages.bsky.social · 1d

A 126,000-year-old butt-drag just made fossil history.
A tiny rock hyrax scooted across the sand of ancient South Africa, and that moment was preserved in stone.

Even the smallest acts can echo through time.
🧪 #SciComm
buff.ly/dcGWTR4

The 126,000-Year-Old Butt-Drag That Rewrote What Counts as a Fossil

How a small animal’s odd habit turned into one of the most unexpected stories ever preserved in stone Some discoveries make headlines because they’re dramatic: new...

climateages.com

6 56 170

Reposted by Gal Ofir

AnniZLab: [🦠, 🧬 , ✨] @annizlab.bsky.social · 2d

Quite an interesting protein search AI model combining sequence, structure, and function text - faster and more accurate than similarity searches. Who has tried it🤩🙌? Only a few secs to search bacterial TFs and integrases #microsky 🧬🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A trimodal protein language model enables advanced protein searches - Nature Biotechnology

A protein foundation model represents protein sequence, structure and function.

www.nature.com

5 16

Reposted by Gal Ofir

Gesa Hoffmann @gesahoffmann.bsky.social · 2d

It was wonderful to have Bijun with us @mpi-mp-potsdam.bsky.social & @incavirus.bsky.social to finally "use our microscope to its full potential" as our core-facility put it! 🔬

Congrats to all, esp. @bijuntang.bsky.social and @xanderjones.bsky.social ! Super happy to be a part of this great story!

7 16

Gal Ofir @galofir.bsky.social · 2d

Archived natural DNA samplers reveal four decades of biodiversity change across the tree of life - Nature Ecology & Evolution

This study explores four decades of biodiversity change across the tree of life in Germany’s terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems by sequencing standardized biota samples from a long-term pollution monitoring archive.

www.nature.com

1 5

Reposted by Gal Ofir

James Briscoe @jamesbriscoe.bsky.social · 2d

The @crick.ac.uk is recruiting Early Career Group Leaders

- Lab set-up, research costs, salaries for up to 5 researchers
- Support for up to 12 years
- Access to our core facilities
- Competitive salary
- Fantastic colleagues
- All areas of biology

Deadline 27 Nov

www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud...

Early career group leaders

We appoint researchers from across biology and biomedicine to set up their first groups at the Crick.

www.crick.ac.uk

2 150 140

Reposted by Gal Ofir

Kranzusch Lab @kranzuschlab.bsky.social · 2d

Thank you to the Blavatnik Family Foundation and The New York Academy of Sciences for honoring our research uniting human innate immunity and bacterial anti-phage defense at @danafarber.bsky.social @harvardmicro.bsky.social @harvard.edu

bit.ly/4pZUDkF

blavatnikawards.org/news/items/t...

4 8 65

Reposted by Gal Ofir

Brent Emerson @brentcemerson.bsky.social · 3d

!!!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Archived natural DNA samplers reveal four decades of biodiversity change across the tree of life - Nature Ecology & Evolution

This study explores four decades of biodiversity change across the tree of life in Germany’s terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems by sequencing standardized biota samples from a long-term pollution monitoring archive.

www.nature.com

14 21

Reposted by Gal Ofir

Marc Somssich @somssich.bsky.social · 3d

Our article "Guns in Rosettes: The Arabidopsis chemical weapons arsenal" is finally published @plantphys.bsky.social!
You can download the #OpenAccess PDF here:

doi.org/10.1093/plph...

But real connoisseurs of #AntimicrobialCompounds will want to get the vinyl boxset: #PlantScience #PlantImmunity

A vinyl box with six colored vinyl LPs sticking out of its right side. The Title "Guns in Rosettes" is on top, with the subtitle "The Arabidopsis chemical weapons arsenal" just below. Then there is an Arabidopsis plant with machine guns sticking out. Below is the statement "6-LP LIMITED EDITION COLORED VINYL BOX SET"

The back cover of the vinyl box set showing the tracklist:
1. Methionine-derived compounds
Aliphatic GSLs
2. Tryptophan-derived compounds (trptonites)
Indolic GSLs
Camalexin
Hycanite (4-OH-ICN)
3. Phenylalanine-derived compounds (phenylpropanoids)
Benzenic GSLs
Coumarins
Hydroxycinnamates
Flavonoids
4. Terpenoids
(E)-β-caryophyllene
α- and β-pinene
Thalianin, arabidin, and DMNT

And the statement "Recorded live in front of an audience in 2025"

3 22 49

Reposted by Gal Ofir

Jelena Godrijan 🫧❾🌊🦋 @godi.bsky.social · 7d

⚠️New paper ➡️ isolating >600 freshwater microbes using dilution-to-extinction and low-nutrient, lake-mimicking media.

🤯Expands cultured diversity to ~70 % of detected genera and enables physiological studies of streamlined oligotrophs.

🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#protistsonsky

Bringing the uncultivated microbial majority of freshwater ecosystems into culture - Nature Communications

A large fraction of aquatic bacteria remains uncultured. Here, the authors cultivated 627 strains of abundant freshwater bacteria from 14 European lakes, thus generating a collection that includes many previously uncultured, oligotrophic bacteria that may serve as model organisms.

www.nature.com

1 25 65

Reposted by Gal Ofir

Tung Le @tunglejic.bsky.social · 8d

Independent research fellowships leading to tenured positions at the John Innes Centre.

Repost = nice. Thank you very much!!!

John Innes Centre @johninnescentre.bsky.social · 9d

Shortlisted candidates will be invited to give a seminar at the Fellows Conference, which will be held on 10 March 2026.

Candidates who win Fellowships will be offered a Tenure Track Group Leader position from the outset, initially for 5 years.

Find out more: www.jic.ac.uk/training-car...

Independent Research Fellowships Leading to Tenured Faculty Positions | John Innes Centre

The John Innes Centre (JIC), is a world leading centre of excellence in plant and microbial sciences based on the Norwich Research Park, UK. We are inviting applications from outstanding researchers…

www.jic.ac.uk

84 46

Reposted by Gal Ofir

GeminiTeamLab @geminiteamlab.bsky.social · 9d

How do geminiviruses maximize their limited coding capacity? Our recent preprint uncovers splicing of viral transcripts as one more strategy used by this viral family. We show that RNA splicing is prevalent in the geminivirus TYLCV — and required for infectivity! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Pervasive splicing in a plant DNA virus

Viruses maximize their limited coding space through strategies that increase transcript and protein diversity. In mammalian viruses, splicing is a well-established mechanism for proteome expansion, ye...

www.biorxiv.org

24 44

Gal Ofir @galofir.bsky.social · 9d

This one by @helenbrabs.bsky.social !

Discovery of functional NLRs using expression level, high-throughput transformation and large-scale phenotyping

Nature Plants - Rapid discovery of functional resistance genes is enabled by a high-expression signature and high-throughput transformation. This approach identified 31 new resistance genes for...

www.nature.com

1 5

Reposted by Gal Ofir

Danve Castroverde @danvec.bsky.social · 9d

Engineered geminivirus replicons enable rapid in planta directed evolution

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Engineered geminivirus replicons enable rapid in planta directed evolution

Directed evolution can rapidly generate genetic variants with new and enhanced properties, yet efficient platforms for performing such evolution directly in plant cells have been lacking. We developed...

www.science.org

1 8 17

Reposted by Gal Ofir

Lukas Fiedler @lukyfiedler.bsky.social · 9d

Previously on BioRxiv, and now a final version of our paper is out! What a great lesson in plant self-organization: Auxin targets its own transporter through a cell-surface kinase complex in a positive feedback loop www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

ABP1/ABL3-TMK1 cell-surface auxin signaling targets PIN2-mediated auxin fluxes for root gravitropism

In gravistimulated roots, gravity perception in the columella redirects the flow of the plant hormone auxin toward the lower root side, where it inhibits cell elongation for downward root bending. Thi...

www.cell.com

3 4 9

Reposted by Gal Ofir

Manlio De Domenico @manlius.bsky.social · 11d

Nearly 4,000 y ago, Egyptians finished their pyramids

Meanwhile, across the ocean, termites in NE Brazil were building something even larger: a hidden empire of 200M mounds, over an area the size of UK 🌍🐜

Still active today, a masterpiece of non-human engineering!
🧪🌐 HT @ricardsole.bsky.social

1 11 44

Reposted by Gal Ofir

Victor S @vmourade.bsky.social · 12d

New Preprint alert! It is finally here!
M incognita is a remarkable pathogen: extremely specialised with the widest host range (> 3,000). All this while reproducing parthenogenetically! We analyse the infection phenotype and transcriptome of 9 hosts (6 orders) at 25 dpi.
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

The host range paradox of Meloidogyne incognita: a physiological and transcriptomic analysis of nine susceptible interactions across six plant orders

The plant-parasitic nematode Meloidogyne incognita is the pathogen with the broadest host range among all known biotrophic interactions. This species is also the single most damaging of a group of agr...

www.biorxiv.org

1 6 8

Reposted by Gal Ofir

Remco Stam @rstam.bsky.social · 11d

Very happy to see this work finally online!
Resistance against necrotrophic pathogens is not generally conserved. When comparing five wild tomato spp, we saw that one spp co-opted a different mechanism against Sclerotinia infection!

KunzLab@LMU @kunzlab.bsky.social · 11d

This looks very interesting. Congrats @rstam.bsky.social et al. Co-option of transcription factors drives evolution of quantitative disease resistance against a necrotrophic pathogen url: academic.oup.com/plcell/artic...

Co-option of transcription factors drives evolution of quantitative disease resistance against a necrotrophic pathogen

Quantitative disease resistance in a wild tomato genotype evolved through species-specific regulatory network rewiring, with an ancient transcription facto

academic.oup.com

13 21

Reposted by Gal Ofir

Erica Dinatale @ericadinatale.bsky.social · 11d

So happy to see my first first-author paper published! 🎈
A short thread on how Ectocarpus and its TE secrets have kept me busy lately:

rdcu.be/eITQH

Characterization of the transposable element landscape shaping the Ectocarpus genome | Genome Biology

rdcu.be

5 20 64

Reposted by Gal Ofir

David L. Stern @gallseeker.bsky.social · 11d

It's official! We are moving to Stowers!
Very exciting opportunity to expand our studies of insect-plant interactions. We have many opportunities available in biochemistry, development, behavior, genetics, evolution, genomics, AI, and even pest control. Interested in any of these things? Reach out!

Stowers Institute @stowersinstitute.bsky.social · 11d

NEWS🎉 We’re excited to announce @hhmijanelia.bsky.social Investigator David Stern will join the Institute from Janelia Research Campus. His lab studies how aphids transform plants at the genetic level, uncovering secrets of #evolution & new strategies for pest control. @hhmi.org bit.ly/4np96Fb

Stowers Institute recruits renowned developmental and evolutionary…

David Stern, Ph.D., brings groundbreaking research on insect–plant interactions for next-generation pest control to the Institute.

bit.ly

12 18 72

Reposted by Gal Ofir

eLife @elife.bsky.social · 12d

The origins of Wnt signalling reveal a protein superfamily across the Tree of Life.
buff.ly/CvRLoAy

3 9

Reposted by Gal Ofir

Helen Brabham @helenbrabs.bsky.social · 13d

Super excited to see our work on the NLRseek program finally published 🥳 Here we identify new NLRs against major wheat pathogens and present a pipeline for NLR identification. Huge thank you to all of the co-authors for bringing this work together! @matthewmoscou.bsky.social rdcu.be/eIGvv

Discovery of functional NLRs using expression level, high-throughput transformation and large-scale phenotyping

Nature Plants - Rapid discovery of functional resistance genes is enabled by a high-expression signature and high-throughput transformation. This approach identified 31 new resistance genes for...

rdcu.be

3 31 45